See cool sea creatures at Calvert Marine Museum

"As a museum of regional history and natural
history, we're showing animals that
are native to the bay or come into the bay and
... we have a tank here with four
cownose rays," says Calvert Marine Museum
Director Doug Alves.

River otters Bubbles and Squeak live at the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons, Md. (Courtesy of Calvert Marine Museum)

SOLOMONS, Md. – If you live in the D.C. area, it’s time to meet your neighbors.

Creatures of the Chesapeake Bay — from the furry to the slippery — are waiting at a local museum you may never have visited — the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons.

“As a museum of regional history and natural history, we’re showing animals that are native to the bay or come into the bay and … we have a tank here with four cownose rays,” says Calvert Marine Museum Director Doug Alves.

Also on display are an unusual light-blue colored blue crab, and the infamous northern snakehead fish.

Tiny, quarter-inch long seahorses were just born at the museum and will likely go on display soon.

There also is a “touch tank” where visitors and their kids can reach in and feel a diamondback terrapin, a horseshoe crab and a skate, a fish closely related to a shark.

Two of the museum’s most popular residents are river otters named Bubbles and Squeak.

They have an outdoor habitat, but come inside around 4 p.m. everyday for a fish dinner.

There is an admission charge to get into the museum, but once a month the museum holds an event called “First Free Friday.”

“The first Friday of every month, from 5 to 8, instead of closing the doors at five o’clock, we stay open for free,” says Alves.